1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition for treating atopic dermatitis comprising hirsutenone as an active ingredient.
2. Background of the Invention
Hirsutenone belongs to compounds having a structure of diarylheptanoid extracted from stem bark of the genus Alnus. Asakawa et al. islolated four kinds of compounds (e.g., alnustone) involving a new structure of diarylheptanoid extracted from flower of A. pendula in 1972 and Miyake et al. in 1973 reported that hirsutenone and hirsutenone were isolated from green stem bark of A. hirsute (Suga, T., Iwata, N. and Asakaw, Y.: Chemical constituents of male flower of Alnus pendula. Bull. Chem. Soc. Jap., 45, 2058-2060, 1972).
Doug et al. discovered that diarylheptanoid plays a critical role in strong prevention of platelet coagulation in 1998 (Doug, H., Chen, S. X., Xu, H. X., Kadota, S. and Namba, T.: A new antilplatelet diarylheptanoid from Alpinia blepharocalyx. J. Nat. Prod., 61, 142-144, 1998).
In addition, Lee et al. reported diarylheptanoid as a new PKC alpha inhibitor in 1998 (Lee, K. K., Bahler, B. D., Hofmann, G. A., Mattern, M. R., Johnson, R. K. and Kingston, D. G. I.: Isolation and structure elucidation of new PKCα inhibitor from Pinus flexilis. J. Nat. Prod., 61, 1407-1409, 1998).
Surh et al. in 1999 and Ishida et al. in 2000 also found that diarylheptanoids have an antitumor-promoting potential (Chun, K.-S., Sohn, Y.-S., Kim, H.-S., Kim, O.-H., Park, K.-K., Lee, J.-M., Lee, J., Lee, J.-Y., Moon, A., Lee, S.-S, and Surh, Y.-J.: Antitumor promoting potential of naturally occurring diarylheptanoids structurally related to curcumin, Mutation Research, 428, 49-57, 1999; Ishida, J. Kozuka, M., Wang, H.-K., Konoshima, T., Tokuda, H., Okuda, M., Mou, X. Y., Nishino, H., Sakurai, N., Lee, K.-S, and Nagai, M.: Antitumor-promoting effects of cyclic diarylheptanoids on Epstein-Barr virus activation and two-stage mouse skin carcinogenesis, Cancer Letters, 159, 135-140, 2000).
The term “atopy” refers to a meaning to be “extraordinary” or “inappropriate” on etymology. Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease which repeats improvement and aggravation after its attack in babyhood or infancy, and is diagnosed according to three features of individual or familial atopy, severe itching and eczema. In addition, atopic dermatitis could be worsen by infection, mental stress, changes of season and weather, stimulation and allergy.
The etiology of atopic dermatitis remains to be clearly elucidated, but according to recent researches, the reasons of attack to induce atopic dermatitis are as follows: (a) hypersensitive response caused from increase of IgE antibody, (b) functional defect by irregular differentiation of T lymphocyte which is caused from reduction of cell-mediated immune response, and (c) blocking of adrenal receptor present in the skin. Therefore, atopic dermatitis has been thought to be a hereditary disorder generated by immunological abnormality.
In general, humectant to preserve the moisture on the skin and steroid hormone (e.g., local antenatal corticosteroid) to alleviate inflammation response are simultaneously treated in most dermatologic clinic for treatment and management of atopic dermatitis. Using a local antenatal corticosteroid for a long period, it is a serious problem to produce various side effects on skin such as dermal atrophy, vasodilatation, depigmentation and striae distensae. Therefore, it has been endeavored to develop a raw material or a drug with anti-inflammatory efficacy for treating atopy without these side effects.
It has been disclosed that hirsutenone compounds have anti-cancer function and anti-oxidative activity, but their physiological effects on atopic dermatitis have not been reported yet.
Throughout this application, various publications and patents are referred and citations are provided in parentheses. The disclosures of these publications and patents in their entities are hereby incorporated by references into this application in order to fully describe this invention and the state of the art to which this invention pertains.